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Despite all the grim news, the world is becoming a better place for us

The news might make you think humanity is going backwards, but global progress on health, education, sanitation and energy mean things are improving overall

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THIS has not been a year to fill the heart with hope. In the US, we have a president who lies apparently without consequence; in countries like Yemen, children are starving; in Europe, we have the omnishambles that is Brexit. And all these stories are stalked by the new horsemen of the climate apocalypse. Many of those involved in the science of climate change are gloomy in public, but even more gloomy when the microphones go off.

All that said, there are good, data-driven reasons to be hopeful as we prepare to welcome in 2019.

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A robust reminder of this came earlier this year in Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world – and why things are better than you think, a brilliant book everyone should read. Its author, Hans Rosling – who died before the book came out – charts how the world is steadily becoming a better place to live as a human. There are outlier countries and regions: for example the Central African Republic, where violence and instability stall progress.

But overall – in terms of health, education, access to energy, clean water and sanitation, and a host of other markers – our species is going forward. We are psychologically geared towards thinking that everything is getting worse. But actually the evidence says differently.

Much of this progress comes thanks to science and innovation, which underlines a fact that is probably obvious to any regular New Scientist reader: science and its applications have never been more important.

There are big things to worry about. There is no way to pretend that climate change and issues like biodiversity loss are going to be solved easily or quickly. But the lesson from Factfulness is that we are capable of amazing progress as a species. Here’s to more steady (if barely noticed) human progress next year.

From the editor

Emily Wilson

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